Improvement in pins for button-fasteners



IRENE E. HABLANB. V Pins for Button-Faste n-ers.

Pa t ented D ec. 8,1874.

No.1 57,5l3.

UNITED STATES PATENT FIGEO IBEN E. HARLAND, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

'IM PROVEMENT IN PINS FOR BUTTON-FASTENERS.

Specification formin'gpart of Letters Patent No. 157,513, dated December 8,1874; application filed August 5, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IRENE E. HARLAND, of the city of Brooklyn and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Pins for Button Fasteners and other purposes, of which the following is a specification:

This invention consists in forming coils, one or more, as shown in the accompanying drawing, in the body or shank of a pin--otherwise such as is ordinarily used to fasten together different articles of dress or different parts of the same articles. The main object of the improved pin is to serve as a button fastener; and in this use it is specially adapted to the fastening of crochet and cloth-covered buttons.

As a button-fastener it will be found specially serviceable for attaching buttons, for ornamental purposes, to fabrics of such thinness and delicacy of texture as to make the working and use of button-holes therein an undesirable, if not an impracticable, thing.

it will be seen, however, that the use of the improved pin is by no means restricted to the one purpose above indicated. The pin may be used to advantage for various other purposes'in fastening together different parts of ones dress, in ways that will readily suggest themselves to one skilled in the use of kindred articles.

Referring to the drawings, Figs. 1 and 2 are views of the improved pin by itself, while Fig; 3 shows how it is to be used in attaching an ordinary cloth-covered button to a garment, the pin and button in this figure being shown in elevation, while the fabric is shown in section. Fig. 4 is the same, in substance, as Fig. 3, except that in Fig. 4, for better illustration of the relative position of the pin and the button, the point of the pin is omitted, and the button is shown in section.

The pin here illustrated has two coils in its shank, this being the preferred number, although it might be made with one coil only; and, by preference, also, these coils, in stead of having a common axis, overlie each other but partially, being connected, as shown in the drawing, by a short straight section. It is this straight connecting section between the two coils that will be buried within the fabric when the pin is used in the way shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The coils, as shown in. the drawing, are to be made by bending the shank of the pin in the direction of its length, which constitutes an important difference between this invention and those pins and fasteners heretofore constructed, in which the wire has been coiled or twisted in planes transverse to the direction of its length. Except in the particular named, the pin is to be constructed in the usual manner, having a suitable head and a point sufiiciently sharp to pierce readily any fabric upon which it may be desirable to use it, and being made of any requisite size.

In using the pin for fastening a cloth-covered or crochet button to the fabric the point of the pin is first thrust through a fold in the fabric, at the same time piercing the boss upon the button. The pin is then turned upon its side and a half-turn given to it, which engages the first coil with the button and the cloth; after which, by turning the pin over upon its other side and giving it a halfturn in a backward direction, the short straight section between the two coils will be brought into engagement with the button and cloth, and at the same time the free sections of the pin-i. 6., the parts lying, respectively, between the coils and the point and the coils and the headwill be in close contact with the fabric.

The pin may be used in a similar way for fastening together any two portions of a garmen t, or for securing one piece of cloth or fabric to another. And it is plain to see that when thus used, as well as when used as a button-fastener, it makes a fastening which is easily adjusted, and at the same time perfectly secure.

The coil in the shank of the pin will also be found convenient, particularly with shawls and similar garments, as a means of securely attaching it to such garments, so that it will be ready at hand whenever needed for use, in which case only the straight portion next the point need be used in the actual fastening of the garment together, much as an ordinary straight pin would be used.

2 I 15mm In practice, two coils in the shank of the pin will probably be found sufficient for all ordinary purposes, though it is plain that a larger number of coils, if used, would, involve substantially the same principle.

I am aware that buttons have been secured upon cards by means of a wire, in which a series of loops or coils has been formed, such loops being passed through apertures in the card, and the buttons afterward secured to such loops by sewing or otherwise. Also, that button-fasteners have been made by forming a coil in the end of a Wire strip, the rest of the Wire being so bent as to form a base-plate for attaching the device to the cloth.

It is manifest that the former of these devices is wholly incapable of that mode of use for which my pin is designed; and in using the latter the coil lies wholly on one side of the fabric, so that the button, by accident 01 otherwise, can be detached without removing the fastener from the cloth. My improved fastener differs from these devices in this important particular, that when in use the coil or looped part is designed to penetrate the fabric, and lies partly on one side thereof and partly on the other.

What is claimed as new is- A pin constructed, substantially as shown and described, with one or more coils or loops formedin the shank thereof by bending the wire in the direction of its length, and designed to penetrate the fabric in the manner set forth.

IRENE E. HARLAND.- Witnesses:

THOMAS HARLAND, SAML. A. DUNCAN. 

